Over the years, modern advances in hunting equipment have enhanced the sport, providing hunters with increased success. Although many of these products are high-technology devices, some products are amazingly simple. An example of such a product is a tree stand which allows the hunter to hunt from an elevated location while being visually hidden in the confines of a tree. These tree stands typical utilize a ladder to access the elevated platform and are often left in place from day to day, or even hunting season to hunting season. However, this practice unfortunately leaves them open to unauthorized use by other hunters as well as access to children to may attempt to climb as well. This obviously poses both a security and safety risk for the tree stand owner.
Various attempts have been made to provide ladder guards. While these attempts may achieve their purported objective each suffers from one (1) or more disadvantage or deficiency related to design or utilization. Particularly, these attempts include guards which must be permanently attached to the ladder, are designed for particular ladder designs and not adaptable to different styles of ladders, have large hinged sections which are not easily transportable, or have elaborate construction with many piece parts which are difficult to install.